Category Archives: Politics

Yes, yes, you want the judicial recommendations. But you’ll have to wait until at least tomorrow for those. Meanwhile, here are some suggestions on the state races.

FL Senate SD-37: Jose Javier Rodriguez

Jose Javier Rodriguez has not been real visible around here, but there’s plenty of reasons to vote for him anyway as that is a vote against Miguel Diaz de la Portilla.

One defining issue for the state of Florida is whether we’ll extend Medicaid to people who are currently not poor enough for it, but still too poor for Obamacare subsidies. The federal government would pick up almost all the costs – making the change is like taking free money; not making the change just means that our federal taxes will flow disproportionately to the 31 states that are signed up for the expanded Medicaid program. States that expand Medicaid see dramatic improvements in access to health healthcare; Florida like much of Old Confederacy is punishing its poor people – many of whom are not white – out of petulant dislike of Obamacare. Despite misleading mailers from the de la Portilla campaign, Rodriguez is on the right side of this one, and that’s reason enough to vote for him right there.

Fl State Rep. Dist 114: Daisy Baez.

Daisy Baez will be a great state rep. I was for her two years ago, and she almost won then against an incumbent. Now it’s an open seat. She has business experience, understand healthcare issues from the inside, and seems from the times I’ve met her to be a genuinely nice person. This one is easy! Among her issues are expanding Medicaid, and support for restoring cuts to the Bright Futures scholarship program. Vote for Daisy!

Next: Some County races.

People seem to want my recommendations in the judicial elections. I’m working on them, and have already talked myself into one perhaps surprising recommendation. But this year I’m doing the whole ballot because so much is at stake. So today it’s the big stuff – the federal races.

Important note if you’re voting early before I get the next two installments up: as well as voting in the top ticket races, be sure to vote NO on Florida’s deceptively worded Constitutional Amendment 1 – that’s important too.

Federal Office

US President: Hillary Clinton.

I am not a big fan of the neo-conservative and militaristic foreign policy, but on almost any other policy metric, Clinton scores from fairly well to great, depending on the topic. And on the one, most critical, issue she is transcendentally wonderful, that being the issue of Not Being Donald Trump. This may be the most important vote you cast in this lifetime; and we need to not just win but run up the score both to make a point, and to avoid any chance of subsequent civil unrest on claims of a stolen election.

US Senate: Patrick Murphy.

Marco Rubio is an empty suit. So, alas, is his opponent. On policy there is much less difference between them than one has a right to expect, as Murphy is a former Republican. Even after switching parties Murphy continued to vote more like a Republican than most Democrats – at least until he decided to run for Senate, at which point Murphy toed the party line a bit more.

I had planned to vote for neither.  I’ve reconsidered because so many members of the GOP have vowed to obstruct Clinton on judges and everything else.  In normal times we might be able to risk divided government, and in normal times I’d suggest not voting in this one as both candidates are depressing. But we don’t have that luxury: Florida’s Senate seat may be the swing between the parties that determines if we will have a fully functioning Supreme Court, or a gradually shrinking one. Hold your nose and vote Murphy.

House of Representatives (FL-27)

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has earned admiration both for constituent services and for her principled and very early separation from Donald Trump. Her opponent, Scott Fuhrman, has good positions on the issues but also has a checkered past. There are probably few if any Republicans in the House who more clearly have earned re-election in a normal year than Ros-Lehtinen; that result is also pretty much a forgone conclusion unless we have a wave election the size of which remains hard to imagine. The case for Furhman is like the case for Murphy – it’s about who runs the House. That said, in Murphy/Rubio you have two dispiriting candidates so it makes sense to vote the national consequences as a tie-breaker.  In Ros-Lehtinen you have an admirable politician who happens to caucus with the wrong guys, and votes wrong on financial issues of importance to her constituents – but votes her district on gay rights and immigration.